In honor of Thanksgiving, we bring you a buffet of posts and Grammar Girl episodes about Thanksgiving words. First, we have a segment about the origin of giving thanks, then a look at why the cornucopia represents abundance, and finally an analysis of the word “Thanksgiving” itself. A revolution in politeness: the linguistic history of ‘thank you’ By Valerie Fridland As we head towards American’s annual Thanksgiving holiday, a day set aside for being thankful, it seems reasonable to wonder how the idea of thanking and its requisite polite form of “thank you,” evolved. It turns out, the type of…
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